"Until philosophers rule as kings," wrote Plato, "cities will have no rest from evils, nor will the human race." By "philosophers" Plato didn't mean the glass-bead-game hand-wringers of contemporary academia. He meant big-picture thinkers who, educated across the arts and sciences, relentlessly seek truth, beauty and justice as sentinels of the public good. A philosopher was poet, prophet and leader-of-the-charge, in one. I think you'll agree we could use such a torch-bearer right now. Australia's relationship with itself feels so parlous – so embarrassingly backward, for all the prattle about excitement and innovation – a soupcon of wisdom would go a...
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